Just a thought Sevarus, what about taking one of those concepts and twisting it up a bit. A Longevity specialist doesn't have to be a simple lab-rat. Perhaps a corporeal necromancer who animates the bodies of the dead for some sinister purpose, and sometimes needs to create those bodies from scratch to avoid arousing suspicion? Just a thought.
I am hesitant about a Tremere member. The house has a pretty firm pro-Latin stance in the tribunal, both in regard to the language and other tribunal-specific tradition like tokens/shards, patrons, etc. So I have trouble seeing a Tremere member without bringing to fore the pro-Latin vs pro-Greek conflict.
That being said, the idea of a magus interested in ships and innovation regarding sea travel can still be done without it being related to House Tremere. There are many reasons this might be seen as desirable bu various houses. Mercere for trade and communication. Bonisagus or seeker to replicate wondrous sea magic of the past. Tytalus for the challenge. Flambeau to fight the infidels. Criamon for the secrets and insights the sea can provide. And so on. 
Or a Criamon longevity specialist, who investigates ways for magi to increase their lifespan through their mind and their link to the Enigma. Or by replicating the trials that heroes of time past had to succeed to achieve immortality (i.e. through initiating into varous mysteries that provide longevity bonuses, such as the Unaging virtue).
Fair enough. They do seem to have a lot of tribunal specific politics that would send the stories in particular directions. I'm not sure I want to take him in the seafaring direction though ... I'll keep toying.
I like the immortality angle; I'm just not sold on the Longevity Ritual piece of it.
I also like the Necromancy thing, but I'm not sure how to pull it off effectively.
Doesn't Hermitic Projects have something about the 'Hermetic Lich'? I have only skimmed through it so I can't recall. It might help give some ideas on the subject if you have access to the book.
That would be fantastic...if I had or had access to that book.
Even if you don't have access to the book for the moment, try thinking about your character and what might drive him into the more obscure aspects of Hermetic necromancy. Do any Houses ring a bell with what you're thinking?
The problem is that I am not sure how to build a Necromancer in this system. There is nothing overtly stated about them, or how to build them, or even what flaws/virtues to take. I know that Corpus is the obvious Art here, but beyond that, I have no idea what to do.
To be honest, I don't have any clues on how to build this concept out, and I'm not sold on the concept to begin with. And it seems that everyone else has this great concept and knows how to get it done, but I just can't do this. Maybe it's late and I'm tired; I'll pick this up in the morning.
Major Magic Focus in Necromancy, and/or the Mysteries of Hermetic Spirit Magic (Spell Binding, Hermetic Empowerment, Spirit Familiar, Living Ghost, etc).
I was wondering if you guys had space and room for a labrat bonisagus heading out into the world to find both some place with enough freedom for his research and projects as well as hopes of picking up lore of the founder of the orders. If you have the space and are good with the concept let me know.
I'm interested in joining, though I'm fresh off vacation, so it may take me a day or two to come up with a concept.
I'm looking through this and I see we have JoelHalpern, Arthur, Markus, The Ambassador, MonkofLords, Severus Snape, Silberluchs, JoeBanjo, and Vespertilio already accepted as players, of these 3 magi have been submitted and 4 have planned out how to spend their prestige. The original ad was for 4-10 players, and we have two more seeking to join. Depending on how we count that puts us at potentially one over on our count of players, or potentially nearing that count- not counting my own characters. I think from here on in I'm going to want to hear affirmative responses from those already playing before we include new people...
Understood.
What bad timing for my vacation.
I think I'm going to move away from the concept of a necromancer. Why? I had a thought about something that I'd like to potentially explore in-game. If this isn't viable, please let me know.
I know we've already got one, but I think I'd like to try my hand at a Criamon. Something of an eccentric. Not sure which path he wants to walk - more than likely Path of Seeming - but definitely the guy will have a focus on wanting to explore time itself. Probably make him something of a healer, as time impacts how quickly a body can or cannot heal, and maybe he wants to see about speeding this process up? Potentially crack through the veil of the real world and see time as it truly exists. Maybe a bit of a tinkerer in the lab, definitely a guy who can build and keeps timepieces?
Does that sound viable for a concept? Not sure how to pull all this together...
As a concept it is fine- the Criamon are half mad anyways- though for paths you might consider the path of walking backwards.
However, before committing to this character keep in mind that the limit of time is a pretty hard and fast limit in Hermetic Magic. It would literally take a hermetic breakthrough for this character to be successful in any real time based magic. If you don't mind playing a character with a sysiphisian task, then by al means, go ahead..
I have no problem playing the character. What I am curious about is whether or not this can be explored in-game. I don't want to create a character who won't get any time (pun fully intended) in the limelight, so to speak.
Off the top of my head, I can see two forms of limelight.
One, which probably won't come up for a while, but which we will have to deal with for many characters, is playing out initiation quests.
The other is that you probably can get clues to go look for something in some region. I expect that this could result in a couple of Magi, some companions, and Grogs coming along.
(I am glad however that I am not trying to be a storyteller for this. I still have way too much to learn.)
I just want to make sure that I will at some point get the chance to explore this stuff. I've been in far too many games where I've come up with a character and started playing only to be told after the fact that my concept is viable but the GM refuses to RP anything that doesn't sit well with his plot line. So I want to be up front and find out if this will happen or not, because if not, I'd rather know now and adjust instead of investing in the idea to find out that it won't happen.
So with the Tremere off the list, I want to retain some of the martial spirit I had started to explore. Actually, I think the Prestige system will help with this. I like the idea of a warrior magus fighting alongside several men at arms, maybe phalanx style, given the circumstances. I might just make him a Jerbiton, seeking vengeance for the sack of Constantinople, or something of the like.